So, for fun, I’m writing a Batman story.

(Bear with me here - this is relevant to the topic.)

My story features The Joker. Now you would think writing the Joker would be easy, yes? Psychopathic, unpredictable, laughs a lot… Shouldn’t be hard, right?

Not so.

If you just make Joker a lunatic, what makes him any different from any other nut in the movies or comics? He needs character. Motivations. Style. This is one reason why Heath Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for a month, to try to figure out comprehensible style for a creature that is, by definition, chaotically insane and incomprehensible.

One of the many working definitions of Joker’s persona is somebody who’s supremely confident in his world view, is thrilled by acts of sadism, and enjoys stirring up chaos for its own sake.

Does that sound like anybody we know?